Media, Elections and Political Violence in Eastern Africa: Towards a Comparative Framework

A comparative report on post-election violence in Eastern Africa has been released by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford, the Center for Global Communications Studies at the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania, and the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research. The paper sheds light onto the problem of post-election violence which "seems to be ever‐more present as complexities of nation‐building and democratic development arise."

The report is based on the outcome of discussions at a December 2008 workshop organized in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by the parties presenting the report. Carl Dundas, IFES chief of party for the Africa Union, contributed to one of the sessions, entitled Architectures of Electoral Systems and their Relationship to Conflict. The conclusions of this session are included in this paper.